The soldier smashed his fists into the ground, a massive crater forming from the hit and sending dust several hundred feet in the air, and he screamed in aimless rage. Every living thing for about two miles raised its head at the sound and decided that they were much better off as far away from whatever it was that had caused the sound as possible.

Aliss winced, pulling Eld and Isabelle closer. "Doom! I get that you're mad about not killing Envy, but maybe this is a-"

DOOM.

The crash of another smashing hit directed at the ground shook the meadow, and Aliss almost fell over from the impact, her armor clanking loudly as she stumbled. "Maybe this is a blessing in disguise! We can regroup, get some more levels and equipment, earn some gold-"

DOOM.

She couldn't help but notice that the sound of his fists breaking the ground into tiny pieces sounded a lot like his catchphrase. It both intrigued and disturbed her on a wide number of levels. Raising her voice to a shout, she bellowed, "DOOM! CALM DOWN AND LET ME TALK FOR A MINUTE, WILL YOU!?"

The soldier leaped out of the crater and crashed into the dirt right in front of her, hands clenched into tight fists and a literally visible aura of rage surrounding him. Eld and Isabelle whined, backing behind Aliss. She raised her hands defensively, backtracking rapidly. "Okay, sorry, I won't yell at you, but you've got to calm down! We're going to attract attention that we might not - oh, never mind, you could handle it."

Sitting down, she slung her shield around and began polishing it, doing her best to politely ignore the steaming figure of the soldier. "Look, we're in the Overworld, okay? The least you could do is appreciate it after living in Hell for so long."

He stomped towards her, sparks of flame igniting and dying out around his clenched fists, and then paused.

The sky was a bright, rich shade of blue, giant mounds of rippling clouds meandering across the expanse and doing their own thing. A small flock of birds were flying away from the soldier's impact site, barely visible in the distance. The rolling hills around them were lush and green, long grass waving gently around his blood-spattered boots. Gnarled trees poked up sporadically around the area, casting a calm shade over all of them.

The soldier's fists relaxed infinitesimally, and with a colossal force of will, he allowed his hands to hang loose. He hadn't genuinely had a moment to just sit down and not be on the alert to kill everything still moving.

Taking a deep breath, he sighed, and the resulting puff of steam hissed outward, spiraling upwards as it dissipated. Slowly, his shoulders dropped, and he closed his eyes behind the visor. Even through the filters of his helmet, the air he was breathing felt fresh.

When he opened his eyes again, a flickering blue board was in front of him.

The soldier blinked in alarm and seized the board, grabbing it two-handed.

. They're p-perfect for you.>

He squeezed the board tighter, even as the corners began to dissolve into separate pixels and floating away. Aliss glanced up at him with mild concern on her face, still polishing her shield while Isabelle licked her/themselves. "Doom? Is everything all right?"

a-a/@$7a - & . They should b-boost your o-o-overall damage output. Oh, t-there's one m-more thing.>

The soldier waited for the board to finish, even as it shrank further, the edges crumbling and dissipating into blue sparks. Aliss looked seriously worried at this point, and stood up, pulling her shield around to her back. "Okay, seriously Doom, what's going on!?"

The board disappeared.

The soldier was left with his hands clenched, squeezing them tighter and tighter as the final vestiges of the disappeared into the sky.

Reaching for the strange presence that was normally in the back of his mind, the soldier felt something and tugged on it.

- Level 157

Class:

MP: 3,240

Resilience - 3,258(+5,590)

Strength - 3,326(+700)

Agility - 3,233(+100)

Intelligence - 111

Charisma - 19

Luck - 8

SKILLS:

,

PERKS:

, , , , , ,

EQUIPMENT:

,

There was no comment. No irritated and mildly passive-aggressive request for him to kill a little slower. No question on why he tried to rip a demon in half vertically instead of just shotgunning it. No frustrated quip about how the soldier could interact with the boards or use them as weapons.

The wrath built up with surprising speed, and the soldier's visor began to glow from the sheer fury. Aliss backed away, Eld and Isabelle whining loudly. "Doom! What's - oh, you've got to be kidding."

The soldier heard the thump of a number of people landing behind him, and immediately after that, "Well 'owdy mates, you got some noice gear! D'ya mind handing it...over..."

As the soldier slowly turned, flames sputtering in and out of existence around him and his armor heating up to a dull red glow, he saw a group of raggedy people standing before him. Their gear was tattered and torn, and their weapons were rusty from misuse. The apparent leader, the one who had been speaking, was white as a sheet. In a tiny voice, he whispered, "I surrender."

The soldier didn't care.

Now he had an outlet.